Newsgroups: comp.parallel.mpi
From: Andy Bakkers <bks@el.utwente.nl>
Subject: http://www.rt.el.utwente.nl/wotug20/
Organization: University of Twente
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1996 16:16:38 +0100
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Message-ID: <32C296D6.3F26@el.utwente.nl>

Parallel Programming and Java Conference
                                   12 - 16 April 1997 
                            	Control Laboratory of the
                                   University of Twente
                                     the Netherlands

 The conference "Parallel Programming and Java" scheduled for 12 - 16 April 1997 is 
being organised by WoTUG. WoTUG is a world-wide network of scientists and engineers 
working on the practical use of parallel computing. This network has been in operation 
since 1984 and has hosted some 50 conferences world-wide. WoTUG-20, the twentieth 
conference organised by the European branch, will be hosted by the University of Twente, 
the Netherlands. 

 Call for Papers 

 Authors are invited to submit papers in any area of parallel and distributed computing. 
Subjects may range from theoretical studies on concurrency, through programming models, 
hardware/software architecture, tools, languages and applications (including diverse
fields such as internet/intranet servers and embedded real-time control). Parallel 
computing has been around for well over a decade and it's about time it started to 
mature. One indicator of maturity would be an emerging common theme unifying all the 
above topics. The Programme Committee will be looking for signs of such a consensus. 

 The "Java" theme in the title of this conference is a stimulus, but not an exclusive 
theme. Java has so much push behind it at the moment that it may help to promote the 
maturity we feel is overdue. Java is certainly being sold at the moment as covering most 
of the above subjects. Its biggest omission, currently, is a sound theoretical basis and 
it is here that the rather mature foundations of occam and CSP may provide crucial help. 
Indeed, there is a growing synergy between occam/CSP and Java that is helping both
technologies to learn from each other and grow. The Tutorials and Panel Session 
accompanying the conference will focus on these developments. 

 Complete (or near-complete) draft papers should be submitted to the Conference 
Organiser by February 1st, 1997. Electronic submission is preferred (in PostScript 
format, UNIX compressed and uuencoded) to: wotug20@rt.el.utwente.nl but postal 
submissions of hard-copy may also be made to:

 Prof. Andrew P. Bakkers
 University of Twente
 P.O. Box 217
 NL-7500 AE Enschede
 The Netherlands
 Phone: 00-31-53-489 2794
 Fax: 00-31-53-489 2223
 E-mail: bks@el.utwente.nl

 If anyone has submission problems, questions should be emailed to the above address. 
There is no particular style needed for papers at the submission stage (although they 
should include an email contact address for one of the authors). Papers accepted for
publication in the formal proceedings will have to conform to the IOS-style used for 
WoTUG conferences (see the URL below). 

 Notification to authors will be e-mailed on February 15th, 1997. Revised camera-ready 
copy delivery by March 15, 1997. The Conference Proceedings will be published by IOS 
Press in its `Concurrent Systems Engineering' series.

 Introduction 

 Multithreading is becoming an accepted technique to implement parallelism in 
contemporary languages (such as Java) and may be considered a replacement for the 
multitasking approach. However, multithreading should be accompanied by a formalism that
assists the programmer to generate correct multithreaded code. Java multithreading is 
based upon Hoare's concept of monitors, which predates his work on CSP. What is the 
relationship between monitors and CSP and what are their relative advantages?

 WoTUG-members have a track record of implementing parallelism for over a decade based 
on occam and the formal theory of CSP. This conference brings the two worlds together in 
order to cross-fertilise both areas. 

 Background 

 Parallelism may be considered an inherent property of a system. If so, this property 
should be considered during system design and parallelism should not be used as a mere 
tool to improve incidental performance. Parallelism is too valuable a property of a 
system to be ignored. The problem with the (software) design cycle is that an inherently 
parallel design is often implemented on a sequential computing platform. There is no 
formalism to support this task. On the other hand, the transformation from parallel 
application to parallel software may be realised using the CSP programming paradigm, 
structured design methods or the object oriented paradigm and design patterns. As Doug 
Lea writes in his book "Concurrent Programming in Java": "One of Java's most powerful 
capabilities is its built-in support for threads, making concurrent programming aviable 
option for Java development". This, of course, has also been at the heart of the occam 
approach for over a decade. 

 WoTUG Committee 

 The scientific program is refereed by the international WoTUG committee. 

 Proceedings 

 The Proceedings will be published by IOS Press see :
 http://www.hensa.ac.uk/parallel/journals/IOS/IOS-details 

 Different style sheets for papers and journals published by IOS Press can be found in :
 http://www.hensa.ac.uk/parallel/journals/IOS/index.html 

 ios.sty [ASCII document] (1993-Jul-20 09:43:27, 9K) 
 ios12.sty [ASCII document] (1993-Jul-20 09:38:24, 5.4K) 
 iosword.dot [MS Word template file for the IOS Press type sheet] 

 Preliminary conference schedule 



                 The conference will be held from 12 - 16 April, 1997. 
   

 The tentative conference schedule is:

  Saturday 12 April
                        Arrival in Enschede, check-in. Java buffet dinner at 20:00 Hrs. 
At Schiphol trains for Enschede leave at 2 minutes past the hour and 3 minutes past the 
half-hour the latter with one changeover in Amersfoort (opposite side of the platform). 
Journey time is 2 hours. Ticket price is 39 guilders.

  Sunday 13 April
                        Tutorials: "An Introduction to Java", "Java Threads" and "An 
Engineering Approach to Concurrent System Design", "An occam Approach to Java (the CSP 
class library)"

  Monday 14 April 
                        Conferece followed by session of the Special Interest Groups.
  Tuesday 15 April
                        Conference, followed by the panel session and conference dinner.
  Wednesday 16 April
                        Conference until lunch at 14:00 Hrs. The Schiphol train leaves 
Enschede at 14:28 Hrs. and arrives at Schiphol Airport at 16:35 Hrs.

                                                    

                           Would you like to be kept informed? 

                           Mail us at: wotug20@rt.el.utwente.nl

